RSS
Home
Season over, some ballplayers must work for a living
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Trent Kline photo by Rob Fisher
Now that the long baseball season is over, many San Jose Giants players have gone home to a leisurely off-season that includes golf, hunting and fishing. But for some players, the winter months will be anything but laid-back.
Many will be working part-time jobs. Catcher Trent Kline, for example, plans to work in a York, Pennsylvania lumber yard, loading trucks and cutting lumber to earn money and stay in shape.
“My parents have been good to me and I have my college degree and I could get a job,” says Kline. “But I want to know what it’s like to have to really work to make a living. A lot of people take their jobs for granted. Some people have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet and it puts things in perspective for me.”
Last year, Kline worked for UPS, loading boxes that came down a conveyor belt onto a truck.
“Toughest part about that was the hours (midnight to 9 a.m.). After work I’d go home and sleep a little bit. Then I’d go to my other job as a baseball instructor. That was my biggest problem. I’d probably sleep about five hours a night.”
.jpg)
Infielder Ryan Lormand works for a barbecue company in Houston, delivering coolers of prepared foods to companies for corporate events.
“A college friend of mine recommended the job,” recalls Lormand. “He did it for two years. He said you can make easy money and they pay you cash each day. I thought it was too good to be true and passed on it. But last off-season my parents told me I needed to find a job to support myself.” Lormand makes $75-100 a day, plus tips.
A couple of Giants may be teaching school this off-season. Pitcher Kyle Nicholson was a substitute teacher near his home in College Station, Texas last year. “I got a little experience with substitute teaching at a local high school and didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would,” but it doesn’t mean he won’t be in front of students again in the fall.
Canadian-born infielder Skyler Stromsmoe is applying for a work visa so he can teach high school in the Dallas area, where he and his wife make their off-season home.
Pitcher Craig Clark is getting married in December, while recently-engaged shortstop Brian Bocock will spend the off-season planning a wedding. And pitcher Paul Oseguera and his wife are expecting a baby in January.
The baseball season isn’t over for catcher Nestor Rojas and outfielder Thomas Neal, who has been invited to play in the Arizona Fall League. Trainer Yukiya Oba will be working in the Instructional League in the Phoenix area.
Though the baseball season is long and involves a lot of travel and bumps and bruises, Kline says after a couple of months of hard labor and cold, dreary East Coast weather he’ll be looking forward to spring training again.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
